


Tony Stark, Bucky's Hero

by aravenwood



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M, post-CATWS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-04
Updated: 2015-04-04
Packaged: 2018-03-21 06:15:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3681093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aravenwood/pseuds/aravenwood
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve decides that Bucky's arm is causing him too much misery and asks Tony to do something about it.</p><p>Also posted on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tony Stark, Bucky's Hero

Steve has become accustomed to Bucky leaving his metal arm lying around their shared apartment in Stark Tower. He is aware of how uncomfortable his friend with his arm; the steel is cold, scratched and its sharp edges around the shoulder slice at his joint, making it bleed when he lies on it wrong. Steve has seen the bloody stains on the sheets which Bucky attempts to hide at the bottom of their washing hamper. Even had he not, the moments which Steve sees Bucky without a left arm are common enough to signal a problem.

The times he confronts Bucky about his metal limb, he receives a shrug and a mumbled reply about it weighing on the joint of his shoulder and collarbone. Any further questioning results in Bucky shutting down, curling into himself in a corner of their apartment, staring at his metal limb in disgust. Steve cares too much to push further, but he also cares too much to see his friend suffer.

So one day he visits Tony in his lab, where the man is sprawled on the couch, half asleep. He wakes enough to listen to Steve’s request, scribbles down ideas for a new arm and falls asleep again, the lower half of his body hanging mostly off the side. It’s a regular sight, but Steve still takes a photo and sends it to Pepper with a message, “I think he needs more coffee!”. It somehow appears on Twitter an hour later, and Tony swears revenge.

A week later, Tony leaves a long parcel on Bucky’s bed, on top of a copy of the book Fahrenheit 451, one of the many which Steve has in his notebook with the title ‘Books Bucky Probably Shouldn’t Read’. Tony seems to want to push Bucky, test out his triggers. Steve does not.

At first, Bucky is more interested in the book, only briefly regarding the package wrapped in brown paper. It takes a little prompting from Steve as he requests to look at the book – only then does Bucky find himself interested enough to peel open the parcel. As he does, his breath catches in his throat.

It’s a new arm, this one fleshy and far more subtle than his steel one. He looks at it with admiration, afraid to pick it up in case it’s just another hallucination or image. Steve is the one who picks it up and twists it a few times in his hands – it is thin and has clear joints and bone structures, the arm can bend at the elbow, the wrist can move and twist as Bucky’s flesh one can. Despite Tony’s childish urging, there are no robotic improvements; no scanning technology, no laser, no super flexible forearm. It is so normal, so human, and Bucky loves it.

He grins like the old Bucky as Steve helps him to attach it. It takes a bit of fidgeting that is definitely painful, and despite that Bucky doesn’t once flinch, even though Steve can imagine this must resemble Hydra working on the old arm, Steve still wishes he had taken Bucky and the arm to Tony to attach. When it is finally attached, Bucky goes still, and then his face crumbles. He isn’t crying – there are no tears but his breath goes loud and heavy – but Steve holds him anyway. He rubs large circles into Bucky’s tense back and whispers soft reassurances, never asking what’s wrong, because he knows that doesn’t help.

When Bucky calms enough to speak, he still doesn’t. He leaves their apartment – a shock in itself – only to reappear a second later to ask what floor Tony’s lab is on. Laughing, Steve takes him there, and the moment Bucky sees Stark, he’s hugging him tightly, and as Tony looks up at Steve with a proud grin, the super soldier returns it.

“You did good, Stark,” he nods, and tells himself to find Tony a present to say thank you. Finding something for the man who has everything – who has invented everything – is a challenge, but the look on Bucky’s face makes it worth the stress.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!


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